After working non-stop for most of the day, Ozzy was having trouble walking a straight line and needed his nightly four hours of rest. His health and stamina were still low, and he hadn't taken time to rest, there was too much to do. He had burned nearly all of his stamina to fuel his fire resistance, and of course, nearly died. One of the paladins had used his healing on him until he ran out of mana. The older man had barely brought him to half health before he used up all his power for the day, and walked away mumbling and shaking his head.

  There was work to be done everywhere. He burned stamina as fast as he got it back, working all day, shifting stones and trying to clear out the entrance to the barracks. Once the entrance and courtyard were clear, he decided that he was done for the day. He got some food and sat down in a clear spot to watch the sunset.

  The Legion and the Order of Paladins had done what they could. Healing and food had gone a long way to restoring people’s spirits. The workers and townsfolk would have to sleep where they could tonight, most in the basement of the barracks. They'd start sorting out the town tomorrow and begin the rebuilding process.

  That night, there was a lively discussion of how to spend their experience and Enhancement Points. For all of them, this was a huge advancement. Suzette was cautioning all of them to spend it wisely, and helping them with choices and ways to get the most out of this windfall.

  All of the workers were gaining experience of one sort or another on a constant basis, but mostly in their professions. The people who had jobs gathering raw materials like the farmers, lumberjacks, and stone cutters were occasionally fighting an elemental. The Named bosses gave an Enhancement point or two and decent experience.

  Crafters managed to create something exceptional now and then, gaining a few Enhancement Points. Betty had produced a batch of cookies one time that were amazing. Each cookie not only tasted fabulous, but restored 100 health, stamina, and mana. She was trying every day to duplicate the recipe and had earned 3 Enhancement Points the first time she made them.

  Everyone tried to fight low-level monsters like the fat rabbits. It was easy for some, and hard for others. Most of the workers just didn't have an attack that wasn't at the default level of 1% to hit and 10 damage. Because of that, Suzette highly recommended that everyone take the Prodigy Enhancement and use it to pick up Adze as a tertiary skill. The ancient agricultural tool seemed to be something that all of them could use once they had the skill. It was fairly weak as weapons go, but it was a start. The bunny meadows were going to be popular on their days off.

  Ozzy examined the ring he'd been given as soon as he got the announcement. It was silver, shiny, and quite reflective. Shrugging, he put it on. He got a message about attuning to the ring and trusting in Fearless Leader just hit 'yes'.

  Ring of Mental Reflection

  This shiny ring is made out of Ethereal Silver from the Astral Plane. It creates a subtle disruption in magical spells or skills used to read your mind. A probe to find your deepest desire will instead find your liking for pork chops. A powerful being can pierce the disruption, but why should they when a cursory scan of your mind only shows your surface thoughts about cats, your girlfriend, and an odd-shaped cloud you saw yesterday? Increases your chances of winning at poker and telling a lie with a straight face.

  Ozzy smiled. He'd much rather have a useful item like this than a fancy flaming sword. He'd have to thank Fearless Leader. Now what to do about these experience and Enhancement Points?

  He had 5000 experience to spend, and 40 Enhancement Points. He and the rest of the group should make it to Level 7. Considering how much he was getting burnt up, it made sense to put some of it into his fire resistance skill. Active Fire Resistance was at Rank 6 after the big fight and would take 600 points to get the skill to Rank 7. Minor Poison Resistance wasn't as high. It was hard to raise it at only 5 experience points for eating a Sedge Beast sandwich. He decided to get Minor Poison Resistance to Rank 5 and Active Fire Resistance to Rank 7. That would cost him 1450 points. Far easier to raise it this way than to eat raw sedge beast every night. Resistances seemed to be skills you didn't think about until you needed them. Ozzy was pretty sure he was going to need them again. That left him with 3450 experience.

  It was funny, he didn't have much in the way of skills to raise. It felt like Ben and Suzette had a dozen more than him with her magic and alchemy and brewing. Ben was involved with a ton of crafting for his "inventing". Maybe he should look into the Prodigy Enhancement to pick up something else.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  For now, he put another 1350 into Billhook to bring it to Rank 6 and 950 into Fire Eating to bring it to Rank 5. The latter was mostly to get more experience in CON. Getting better with the ungainly pole weapon was important. There was a downside to hitting everything with his fists. If nothing else, the Glue Daemon had shown him that. With 1150 experience left to spend he put another 800 into Billhook, bringing it to Rank 7, and the last 350 into Boar Hunting, getting to Rank 3. Being able to stop a charging monster was handy. He swung the ungainly weapon into a guard stance and then thrust with it twice. It was already easier to swing. Getting the next two ranks would max out the skill, he'd have to work on that. Maybe another trip into the rat-kin dungeon someday? However, he needed to work on something besides strength skills. With the experience of killing characters during the war, and what he'd spent today, he was up to 20 strength. To raise it more he'd have to use Enhancement Points. STR and CON were easy for him, most everything else was hard.

  Finished assigning that massive chunk of experience? Welcome to Level 7.

  You have gained +200 Health, +200 Mana, and +600 Stamina

  (Is that right? Holy shit, how did...oh, another Contract Worker. I'd make a comment about you being 'broken', but one look at that pitiful skill list made me remember how nerfed you are. Anyway. Congratulations. You are the 2nd Contract Worker to make it to Level 7, and no, you don't get a prize for that.)

  Ozzy wondered sometimes who generated those messages. It was nice to gain another level, but if he had to go through a war and dungeon break for the next one, he'd pass, thank you. Now where to put that heritage point? CON was probably the best since he had so many STR skills.

  Next up were Enhancement Points. There were two options given to him back when he fought Root! and killed the mutant veggie. One was the skill Resist Torture, which he'd already taken. The real gem was Acid Resistance for 5 points. He wished he would have bought it after the fight with the Deamon, but things had been hectic. Sure enough, he ended up needing it. Lesson learned, and he bought it now.

  You have learned the skill: Acid Resistance, passive. You will mitigate 5 points of damage plus 5 points of damage per rank. This is a tertiary CON skill.

  Joe had mentioned something about a visit to someone called Old Smoke. With that in mind, he bought Endless Breath 2, 3, and 4 for a cost of 9 points total. He wasn't sure, and Joe was cagey about it, but it wasn't hard to imagine that wherever Old Smoke was, it wasn't going to be a healthy place. Suzette was suggesting everyone by Prodigy so they could gain another tertiary skill, for a stat they couldn't earn another way. He spent the points but held off on picking the skill. Another seven points went into buying Extra Health 1 and 2. That was a line of skills he should keep working on. It started slow but just kept getting bigger and bigger. Suzette was getting a lot of extra mana that way.

  Another 10 points went into a skill that he knew would be useful in the next few weeks. A lot of the blocks of stone used to build the village were massive. A few of the workers could lift them working together. Ozzy wanted to be able to do it by himself and free up more people for other things. If you were going to multiply the hauling ability of someone, it might as well be the strongest guy. He bought the Haul 4 and Haul 5, gaining a x6 multiplier. With his STR up to 20, there wasn't anything in the village he couldn't lift and put in place. There was going to be a lot of building and cleaning up to do for weeks on end. Looking at the list of Enhancements, he saw something else he needed, Identification. It was too handy to pass up. The first two levels were 8 enhancement points, and he'd save the last four points.

  Suzette came over and sat down next to him. Putting his arm around her felt nice. If there was one good thing that had come out of the last couple of weeks it was their relationship solidifying into a long-term commitment to each other. "So, done with your bookkeeping, slowpoke? I could feel the wheels grinding in your head across the courtyard."

  "Yep, and I seem to have come in second. I wonder who was so quick to spend her points?"

  She laughed at him. "Some of us don't strategize and agonize over how best to beat a system like some people. I knew what I wanted and didn't second-guess myself. Plus, the bonus for coming in first was so nice. I bet Ben will be thinking about things all night, and Rolly and Squirmie will be arguing just as long. "

  "Wait? You got a bonus. What was it? More points?"

  She took out a small cloth sack. "Better, a big bag of chocolate-covered pretzels. You're lucky I don't mind sharing."